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From 2016 to 2021, the ski industry has ranked between the fifth and third highest in incident rates for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In fact, we have a higher (by multiples) incident rate year-over-year than the oil and gas extraction, logging, and fishing industries, to name a few. This is not a contest we want to win. 

First and foremost, it means too many of our friends and colleagues are getting injured every year, sometimes in life-changing incidents. Second, these injuries have significant impacts to operations, workers’ compensation premiums, and annual self-insured retentions, which have material impacts to your bottom line. Third, such a consistently high rate exposes the industry to increased scrutiny and citation risk from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).     

Impacting this number requires change. The way we have been doing things as an industry continues to yield unsatisfactory results. “The way we have always done things” isn’t always the wrong way. But if there are practices that continue to lead our teammates to injury, we must look for another way.

Over 15 years coaching and advising outdoor recreation companies on safety and risk, I’ve identified three fundamental concepts that help organizations chart a path to fewer injuries: engaged leadership; data-driven frequency and risk-based hazard reduction; and showing your work. 

LEADERSHIP MATTERS

The cult-favorite TV show “Ted Lasso” provides an excellent modern-day example for how a nice-guy leader can turn an organization around. In the show, an American football coach (Lasso) becomes the surprising new coach of a struggling professional soccer team in the UK. Lasso’s unflappable positivity seems like a joke at first to players and fans, but his brilliance as a leader comes through as his sincerity, empathy, and kindness transform the players and team into a winning unit. 

Lasso demonstrates the power to build confidence and trust in his team through even the toughest of circumstances. The key is giving a #&$%. How does this translate to workplace safety? A present, caring, and accountable leader can turn workplace safety culture around. 

Talk about it. Leaders and organizations that want to excel must first consider where safety lands on the agenda for their meetings. Is it the first topic, last, somewhere in between, or not on the agenda at all? Safety—and the specific actions teams are taking to keep each other safe—needs to be an active dialogue among senior leaders and their teams. Why? Because conditions and hazards change by the hour in this business, and leaders need to be able to respond to those changes with risk mitigation measures—changing a designated route or downloading employees when on-hill conditions become unsafe, for example.

Equally important is providing support for your employees in the event of an incident. If an employee gets hurt, they need to know their leaders care, that there are resources available, and what the expectations are to come back to work.  

One of the best examples of caring and accountable leadership I have witnessed is a GM who would call every employee that was injured. She wanted to make sure the team member knew they were missed and ask if they needed anything. 

Show up at employee incident reviews and engage in the process with the same diligence and care you give to managing your PnL. This one meaningful action will make a difference in preventing incidents in the future, because it holds you and your team accountable to setting goals and providing support. 

Leaders must also solve the problem, not the person. The best and most successful safety cultures focus on problem solving as a team. Cultures of blame lead to less collaboration and innovation, and more unreported injuries and catastrophic consequences.   

According to the American Psychological Association, “Sixty to 80 percent of workplace accidents are attributed to stress, and it’s estimated that more than 80 percent of doctor visits are due to stress.” If leaders use blaming language (“it’s ‘your’ fault”), injuries are likely to go unreported and often can be more severe. “We” need to solve this problem together is much more productive, engendering a culture of shared purpose, accountability, and solutions.  

STOP PLAYING WHACK-A-MOLE

The absence of incidents is not the presence of safety—that’s called luck. To improve safety, and thus actively reduce incidents, we need to control for frequency and risk by prioritizing the most common and hazardous injuries. In the heat of a busy season, it’s difficult not to play “whack-a-mole” when tackling workplace incidents—one day, an employee slips and falls in the parking lot, the next a ski instructor catches an edge. 

The sheer number of decisions and actions employees have to make each day is the greatest source of risk at a ski area—each run, every turn, where to walk, how to walk, how to turn, where to turn, and so on. Therefore, making safe decisions has to be a daily conversation and a constant thought process for team members.

High-frequency hazards. How do we control for such variability? I would pose the question: Is it really that variable? Looking at data sets over the years, at least 60 percent of injuries at ski areas are related to falls of two types: slip and falls on snow or ice, and falling while skiing or riding. If we relentlessly focus on those two high-frequency injury types rather than playing whack-a-mole, we can better impact the incident rate.

There are two general schools of thought about how to reduce the frequency of incidents: reduce exposure and/or find more effective controls. 

To reduce exposure, ask: Are there opportunities to reduce hours on skis and walking on slippery surfaces? Are there alternative modes of transportation? Or should we be looking at fundamental job descriptions and better limiting who skis, when, where, and why? 

For operations with inherent risk, e.g., skiing and riding, what controls work? Ride testing, free lessons, ride for work expectations, designated routes, as well as boot and binding compatibility checks are all effective programs to control risk.

Look at the type of terrain and circumstances of ski and ride incidents. How many happen on blue or green terrain? Incidents on the “easiest” terrain suggests we need to find tactics that promote constant situational awareness and how to apply it. 

Traction devices for footwear are a common control for slip and fall risk. Although, I frequently hear, “But how do I get my employees to wear them?” This all comes down to incentives. If pizza parties aren’t working, require employees to wear them. 

High-impact hazards. Just because it hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it won’t. We not only need programs that address the hazards that cause injury most frequently, but also those for hazards that don’t happen often, but are life changing or threatening when they do.

OSHA compliance standards address many of these areas.

So, do you have required programs for lockout tagout, permit required confined space, fall protection, guarding, arc flash, trenching, excavating, tools, etc.? Accidents involving these and other OSHA standards are often severe and will likely precipitate an OSHA visit. Having the program is one thing, managing to it and staying current is another. There are incredible resources throughout the industry, insurance partners and consultants, that can help conduct risk assessments and help close compliance gaps. 

SHOW YOUR RECEIPTS 

In a 2002 interview, Diane Sawyer asked Whitney Houston about an allegation that the singer had spent upwards of $730,000 on drugs. Houston responded, “I want to see the receipts.” If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. The same is true with your OSHA compliance. Workplace procedures, initial training, daily meetings, recognition, disciplinary action, and safety program results—it all needs to be documented. 

Beyond compliance. We need disciplined safety plans that address both exposure and hazard risks. We also need to track the implementation of those plans and document the results. Saying your incident rate went down last year is great, but how much did it go down and why? What action resulted in the reduction? Why do you think the action worked? With any safety program, you should be able to answer these questions, because we need to be able to define those tactics, plans, programs, equipment, etc. that are and are not working at our resorts and as an industry. 

We cannot learn from each other if safety plans, their execution, and their results are not well documented and, most importantly, universally shared. Employee safety best practices should not be proprietary. All stand to benefit from thoughtful, disciplined dialogue. 

There will not be one universal solution, more likely a menu of practices that work under different circumstances. There are different risk appetites and company values. For example, some ski areas value employees skiing and riding more than others. That value will change the controls to impact employee injuries. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

We must rethink the industry paradigm of employee safety. This is a hazard-rich industry. If we are to make significant improvement to our incident rates, we need to address the hazards that drive injury frequency and severity and share those safety practices that work. 

Falling back on “this is the way we do things” means we aren’t willing to question if there is a safer way. Excellence at employee safety is not another checklist item. It requires leaders to foster a culture of problem solving and continuous improvement—that’s not just good for safety, that’s good for your business and our industry.